Pink & Purple Flour Tortillas

Soft, flexible homemade flour tortillas colored pink and purple for Charlotte's Cheshire Cat Savory Tail pinwheel platter. One full batch makes 8 large tortillas; make one batch of each color and scale after the RSVP count is final. Adapted from King Arthur Baking's Simple Tortillas formula.

YIELD 8 approximately 8-inch tortillas per color batch. INGREDIENTS — ONE COLOR BATCH • 2 1/2 cups (300 g) all-purpose flour • 1 teaspoon baking powder • 1/2 teaspoon table salt • 1/4 cup (50 g) neutral vegetable oil, preferably canola or regular vegetable oil • 7/8 to 1 cup (200–227 g) hot water, about 110–120°F • Concentrated gel food coloring: pink for one batch; violet plus a tiny touch of pink for the purple batch DIRECTIONS 1. Measure 7/8 cup of the hot water. Stir in about 1/8 teaspoon gel color to begin. The water should look one or two shades darker than the desired tortilla because the flour will lighten it. For purple, add violet first and the tiniest touch of pink if it looks blue or gray. 2. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together. 3. Add the oil and most of the colored water. Stir into a shaggy dough. Add the remaining water only as needed. The dough should be soft, smooth, and slightly tacky, but not wet. If dry or cracked, add hot water 1 teaspoon at a time; if genuinely sticky, dust with a little flour. 4. Knead on a lightly floured surface for a few minutes, until smooth and evenly colored. 5. Divide into 8 equal balls, flatten slightly, cover, and rest for 30 minutes. Keep the dough covered so it cannot dry out. 6. Heat an ungreased cast-iron skillet, griddle, or heavy frying pan over medium-high heat (approximately 400°F). 7. Roll one covered dough ball at a time into an approximately 8-inch round. Homemade circles do not need to be perfect. 8. Cook in the dry skillet for about 30 seconds on the first side and 20–30 seconds on the second. Remove when opaque with only a few light brown spots. Do not cook until crisp or heavily browned; overcooking muddies the color and causes cracking. 9. Immediately stack cooked tortillas inside a clean folded kitchen towel. Let the full stack cool completely before sealing in a food-storage bag. TWO-COLOR TEST BATCH — PER COLOR • 1 1/4 cups (150 g) all-purpose flour • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder • 1/4 teaspoon salt • 2 tablespoons (25 g) neutral oil • 7–8 tablespoons (100–114 g) hot water • Gel color as needed This makes approximately 4 test tortillas per color. PINWHEEL ASSEMBLY NOTES • Cool tortillas completely before filling. • Keep turkey salad thick and cream-cheese-forward rather than mayonnaise-heavy. • Spread filling almost to the edge, leaving a narrow clean strip where the roll closes. • Do not overfill. Roll tightly, wrap each roll in plastic, and refrigerate whole overnight. • Slice the chilled rolls the following morning with a sharp serrated knife. • Arrange alternating pink and purple slices in a thick curling S shape to form the Cheshire Cat tail. STORAGE Cool plain tortillas completely, wrap tightly, and refrigerate. For party prep, make the tortillas and assemble the whole wrapped rolls on Saturday; slice and arrange on Sunday morning. Keep turkey-filled pinwheels at 40°F or below and do not leave them at room temperature for more than 2 hours. SUCCESS CHECK Before party weekend, refrigerate one filled pink roll and one filled purple roll overnight. The next morning, verify that the tortillas remain flexible, the filling has not made them damp, the colors remain bright, and the slices stand neatly.

Planned for Charlotte's Alice in ONEderland first-birthday party on October 4, 2026. Test both colors and the turkey-salad moisture level before party weekend. Record the gel-color brands and exact amounts after the successful test. FIRST PRACTICE ATTEMPT What worked: Flavor was good. What happened: Tortillas were thick and pita-like rather than thin and flexible, and difficult to roll after cooking. Raw dough stretched and shrank back, stuck to the rolling pin, and folded over itself. What I did: Skipped the dough rest entirely. Likely cause: The dough needed time to relax; sticking also made rolling difficult. Try the rest before changing the ingredient amounts. NEXT ATTEMPT CHECKLIST - Keep the recipe amounts the same. Divide into balls, cover, and rest for 30 minutes before rolling. Set a named timer: "Dough ready to roll." - If the dough still shrinks back, cover and rest another 10-15 minutes rather than forcing it thinner. - Lightly flour the counter and rolling pin; use small dustings where needed rather than kneading in lots of extra flour. - Flatten into a disk, roll gently from the center outward, and lift and turn between passes to prevent sticking. - Roll and cook one test tortilla before doing the whole batch. - Cook just until cooked through with a few light brown spots; avoid overcooking. Stack immediately inside a clean folded towel to keep flexible. NEXT TEST LOG What worked: What did not work: Actual rest and cooking times: Changes to keep for next time: